Category Archives: Books

Through the Khalifah Institute we always try to disseminate and promote the traditional beliefs and practices of Islam. Sometimes, though, I worry that perhaps because we so often use the language of modern science and technology to describe traditional Islamic belief and practice that there may be those who do not realize how closely we try to stay within the bounds of authentic Islamic scholarship.

To remedy what could otherwise come to be a misunderstanding as to the traditional authenticity of the Islamic knowledge we present to the world through the Khalifah Institute we thought it would be useful to present the ideas and words of some prominent Muslim scholars concerning many of the same Islamic concepts and issues which form the ideological basis of the Khalifah Project.

This volume reviews the writings of three prominent Muslim scholars of the 20th century. They are Sir Dr. Allamah Muhammad Iqbal, Dr. Ali Shariati, and Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fazl-ur-Rahman. I think it would be true to say that they are representative of the diversity of modern Islamic scholarship. In a later volume we will present the ideas and writings of various early Muslim scholars covering a similar range of Islamic Issues.

I could not say that we at the Khalifah Institute are in complete agreement with the ideas expounded by any of these three important scholars, but we are certainly in general agreement with most of the enlightened knowledge that all three of these scholars have contributed to the modern Muslim ummah.

None of these scholars, although they are all contemporary, write in the manner I do so you will find their choice of words very different than mine. Sometimes, perhaps, their words can be a little difficult to understand (although my writings must also occasionally suffer from that same malady).

I think you will find in the articles by these three outstanding Muslim scholars literally hundreds of instance where the ideas they are expressing are in complete agreement with the teachings of the scientific understanding of Islamic knowledge being disseminated through the Khalifah Institute. Additionally, the general Islamic worldview presented, and I would say consensually held, by all three scholars is virtually identical with the spiritual perspective behind the dawah activities of the Khalifah Project.

In the 1960's in the United States I set out on a search for Truth. This was to be no quest to fill some missing spiritual vacuum; I had already firmly determined that God did not exist. Not only did I not believe in God, but I was convinced that all logic, reason, and scientific evidence confirmed that God did not exist; and, that for anyone to believe in the existence of God was such an outdated, superstitious way of life that it would hold them back from fulfilling their human potential and would likewise block the human race from achieving its ultimate destiny. So certain was I that I once stated, establishing the highest authenticity of my atheistic credentials when I was lecturing to a large class of about 500 introductory psychology students that, "If there was ever going to be the last person on Earth who didn't believe in God it would be me".

My search for truth included almost fourteen years as a full time university student and resulted in my going through three and a half PhD programs in child, clinical, experimental, and educational psychology. I had originally intended, and began, my studies in the physical sciences. This allowed me, due to previous training in nuclear electronics, to spend four years as a research assistant in one of the foremost theoretical physics laboratories of that time, where I had the opportunity to meet and discuss the most basic nature of our physical universe with several recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics…

…I still remember thinking, "If I could use the Laws of Learning to teach an animal with as little intelligence as a chicken to do that quite complex task so quickly, why couldn't those same Laws of Learning be used to help children grow up to be good and decent human beings?" This was the beginning that led me years later, during my third PhD program, to come up with the hypothesis that, "If you were to give to any individual or social group just two things, a positive, accurate, and motivational world view, plus a good understanding of the Laws of Learning by which all human characteristics are developed, then that individual or social group would move naturally and inevitably toward everything good and right."…

…I remember well the day that I finally had to concede that if I wanted to be fair and objective as a scientist I would have to accept that due to the findings of modern physics, particularly Einstein's Theories of Relativity, I could no longer deny the existence of God. I had to accept that modern science and logic now offered powerful proof of the existence of God. And, I remember equally well my first two words to myself when I realized I now had to accept the existence of God as a reality. This is very revealing as to my character at the time, but those two words were, "Oh no!" I understood immediately that my life would have to change drastically, since knowing that God existed also meant having an obligation to live according to the Will of God rather that feeling free to succumb to the whims of human desire.